The Capture

Premise

Series 1

Former soldier Shaun Emery is released from prison after his conviction for a war crime in Afghanistan is overturned on appeal owing to flawed video evidence. However, his return to civilian life is short-lived when CCTV footage implicates him in the assault and kidnapping of his barrister, Hannah Roberts. While Emery attempts to clear his name, DI Rachel Carey investigates and soon begins to uncover a wider conspiracy, calling into question the validity of the surveillance footage.

Series 2

Six months later, DCI Rachel Carey is now entrenched in the UK's own "Correction" unit, having seemingly joined the intelligence operation she once sought to expose. When rising politician Isaac Turner MP becomes the target of a live deepfake hack, Carey finds herself in the middle of a new conspiracy involving the dangerous rise of real-time deepfake technology. Faced with a threat that has evolved far beyond CCTV tampering, she must navigate a landscape of political interference as well as media manipulation while challenging the boundary between digital fabrication and the truth.

Series 3

One year after exposing the "Correction" programme, Rachel Carey is now the Acting Commander of Counter Terrorism Command, overseeing the launch of Operation Veritas, a new surveillance system designed to detect digital manipulation in real-time. When a well-coordinated act of terror strikes central London, Carey becomes the sole eyewitness to a crime that her own technology cannot verify. As she investigates, she uncovers a conspiracy reaching the security and political establishment, forcing her to question herself and the costs of pursuing a truth that few are willing to believe.

Cast and characters

Main

Overall

Holliday Grainger as Rachel Carey – A fast-track detective whose career is defined by a ruthless ambition and a rigid, often isolating moral compass. While highly capable and headstrong, she is frequently viewed as "spiky" and "plain-speaking," traits that often place her at odds with her superiors and leave her with few personal allies. Despite her tactical sharpness, her commitment to accountability leads her trust in her own integrity to be pushed to its breaking point.

Lia Williams as DSU Gemma Garland – An inscrutable and glacial senior intelligence official within SO15. A pragmatic operative who prioritises national security over transparency, she frequently employs morally ambiguous methods to protect state interests.

Ron Perlman as Frank Napier – A powerful and cynical CIA Section Chief who utilises ruthless, clandestine tactics to protect American interests. He oversees covert state operations with a pragmatic disregard for legal transparency.

Ben Miles as Danny Hart – The Commander of SO15 who oversees counter-terrorism operations. While a staunch defender of national security, he is increasingly conflicted by the ethical cost and systemic deception involved in covert state programmes.

Ginny Holder as DS (later DI) Nadia Latif – A principled and methodical detective who relies on empirical facts over intuition. Her process-driven approach often leads her to identify the technical anomalies that expose larger conspiracies.

Cavan Clerkin as DS Patrick Flynn (series 1–2) – seasoned, street-smart detective and pragmatic ally to Carey. Despite initial scepticism of her career path, he provides a grounded perspective while assisting her in navigating complex investigations.

Paapa Essiedu as Isaac Turner MP (series 2–3) – The Minister of State for Security and a rising political star. After his career and personal life are upended by a real-time deepfake hack, he becomes an ally to Carey in her attempt to expose 'Correction'.

Supporting

Overall

Daisy Waterstone as Abigail Carey – Rachel's younger half-sister

Nigel Lindsay as DCI Tom Kendricks – A senior SO15 official and tactical lead who ensures operational stability within the CTC control centre. A long-term colleague of Rachel Carey, he provides logistical oversight and support during her investigations.

Tessa Wong as DC Chloe Tan (series 2–3) – A diligent and observant fast-track detective. Emerging as a "shadow" of Rachel Carey, she provides meticulous, data-driven support for investigations while striving to prove herself as a key member of the team.

Andy Nyman as Sir Rowan Gill (series 2–3) – The Home Secretary and Isaac's superior at the Home Office. A seasoned politician, he is one of the few officials with high-level knowledge of the "Correction" programme.

Series 1

Sophia Brown as Karen Merville – Shaun's former partner and the mother of his young daughter. She is wary of his release and remains deeply concerned for their daughter's well-being as the legal and media scrutiny surrounding him intensifies.

Alan Williams as Eddie Emery – Shaun's grandfather who provides him with a place to stay and emotional stability following his release. He remains a steadfast believer in his grandson's innocence as the criminal investigation and media attention intensify.

Paul Ritter as Marcus Levy – A seasoned broadcast consultant and video engineer who provides the expert technical evidence required to secure Shaun's initial release. He later assists Rachel Carey by theorising how CCTV footage could be manipulated through "delayed" transitions.

Famke Janssen as Jessica Mallory – A high-ranking official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Frank Napier's superior. She arrives in London to oversee American interests in the "Correction" programme and ensure the integrity of the operation remains intact.

Episodes

Music

All tracks are composed by Ian Arber and Dave Rowntree.

Production

Development

The Capture was created by Ben Chanan, who drew on his background in documentary filmmaking and research into counter-terrorism. A team of researchers, including one who used to work in counter-terrorism, provided advice to the writer. Chanan has said the idea originated several years earlier while interviewing counter-terrorism operatives in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he became interested in the central role of video evidence in securing convictions. The premise developed from the intersection between this reliance on recorded images and the increasing ability to manipulate video using digital technology. He also cited 1970s conspiracy thrillers as an influence on the tone of the series.

Chanan initially pitched the concept unsuccessfully, before returning to it after completing work on The Missing and writing the first episode as a spec script. He has stated that producing a full script proved instrumental in advancing the project, after which Heyday Television took on development and the series was commissioned by the BBC for broadcast on BBC One. Following the success of the first series, the programme was subsequently recommissioned for a second series in 2020 and a third series in 2025. Chanan wrote every episode of the first three series, as well as directing the first.

Casting

In August 2018, it was announced that Callum Turner and Holliday Grainger would be leading the cast. In March 2019, additional casting was announced with Ron Perlman, Famke Janssen, Laura Haddock, Ben Miles, Lia Williams, Sophia Brown, Paul Ritter, Adelayo Adedayo, Ralph Ineson, Cavan Clerkin, Ginny Holder, and Nigel Lindsay joining the cast.

In August 2021, Paapa Essiedu had been cast as a guest series lead for the second series, with Andy Nyman and Indira Varma cast in supporting roles. In July 2022, it was announced that Charlie Murphy and Rob Yang were joining the cast.

In April 2025, it was announced that Killian Scott had joined the cast in a pivotal role for the third series, alongside Joe Dempsie, Andrew Buchan, Hugh Quarshie, and Amanda Drew in supporting roles. In January 2026, Linus Roache and Jonathan Aris were cast in supporting roles, and Paapa Essiedu was confirmed to return.

Release

The first series premiered on BBC One on 3 September 2019, and on Peacock in the US on 15 July 2020.

The second series premiered on BBC One on 28 August 2022, and on Peacock in the US on 3 November 2022.

The third series premiered on BBC One on 8 March 2026, on ABC Television and iview in Australia on 7 June 2026, and on Peacock on 18 June 2026.

A fourth series has not been announced, but Chanan has said "A trilogy feels nice. What we do after this, I don't know. This is maybe it. But at the same time, I feel the whole subject of AI, and how we’re going to live with it, is still evolving, for sure. We're just at the beginning of it. So there’s plenty of material and inspiration if we want to do another series."

Reception

Critical response

The first series was reviewed positively by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 92% with an average rating of 8.1/10, based on reviews from 39 critics. The site's critical consensus said, "Gripping to the very end, The Capture's well-built tension culminates in a riveting revitalization of a tired genre". On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, it received a score of 72 out of 100 based on 20 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The Telegraph awarded the episode four stars, labelling the series as "riveting", and The Independent also awarded it four stars, designating it an "intriguing, but rather flawed, sort of Big Brother thriller set in our contemporary world of digital snooping". In his review in The Times, James Jackson referred to the drama as a "neatly structured thriller... clearly out to interrogate surveillance culture", also awarding four stars. Lucy Mangan, writing in The Guardian was less enthusiastic, concluding it to be a "twisty if lacklustre drama", giving the opening episode only three stars out of five.

Reviews improved over the course of the series, and the finale was highly praised by critics, with many drawing positive comparisons with the BBC's similar series Bodyguard which was broadcast around the same time the previous year. The Telegraph described it as a "highly satisfying series finale", while The Times critic James Jackson referred to the series as "the thinking man's' Bodyguard".

Sarah Hughes echoed these sentiments in her review of the series 1 finale in The Guardian, calling the show "nuanced and complex... one of the most cleverly plotted dramas of recent years", and the final episode as "a refreshingly grownup hour of television".

The second series was also reviewed positively by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the second series received an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 7.8/10, based on 12 critics. The site's critical consensus said, "Deftly melding contemporary concerns with outlandish internal logic, The Capture's sophomore season is brainy camp that will detain your attention." On Metacritic, it received an average score of 70 out of 100, based on four critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The Telegraph awarded it four stars, labelling the series as "slick and well-written", and The Independent awarded it three stars, writing that "At its best, The Capture feels like the closest thing Britain has to Homeland". In her review in The Times, Carol Midgely awarded it five stars, writing that even though the finale was "implausible, elaborate, daft and had more twists than a cheap garden hose...It was also fabulously entertaining". Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian awarded it three stars, writing that "Despite the manifold sillinesses, the opening scene in James Kent's directed episode of Ben Chanan's drama is done effectively".

Viewership

The Capture was the most requested new show in 2019 on BBC iPlayer, with more than 20 million requests for series 1. It was also the eighth most requested series overall in 2019.

Accolades

For his performance in the first series, Callum Turner received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.